It’s a bright sunny day in the city of Shaoxing. I’m beginning
to write this on a Saturday afternoon, sitting in the theatre square. People
are out, kites are flying and the greenery is lush. Summer has swept in like a
swift wind, leaving winter chills a memory within the span of a week. Life for
Julie and I is good these days; I think we’re both feeling more in tune with a
daily rhythm and my surroundings as a whole. The people are more familiar, as
is the food. Landmarks, streets and districts have become distinguishable, along
with my basic mandarin pronunciation. Progress in my students is apparent, along
with my teaching competency. The initial
culture shock has faded and the pace of world around me seems more measured.
I’ve been here almost two months now. A fact that seems striking to me. I’m
speeding through time; considering how much as I’ve experienced over the last
two months, my time here feels like hardly any time at all. Well spent, I would say, but it’s easy to see
how effortlessly my year here could dwindle away.
 |
| The Theatre Square, the minor theatre on the left and the main theatre straight ahead. |
These days I’ve scattered my time over fair variety of
things: drawing, studying, exercising, exploring, writing, reading, cooking
and, of course, teaching. It’s wonderful how often I find myself experiencing
something I haven’t before. Teaching is generally a delight – although inexperienced, I
feel like I’ve come by it naturally. The balance of it seems simple really,
energy for energy, if you project enthusiasm, the students will play with it
and give it right back – usually. Although sometimes there is only so much you
can do when your students are crawling through their 12th, 13th,
14th hour (or more) of study for the day. Nevertheless, the kids are
vibrant, fun and endearing. My weekly schedule consists of kids ranging from 7 to
18 years old, which I think is fantastic. I love the variation this range
offers in terms of personalities, perspectives and style. Each grade offers its
own unique experience and emphasizes the many stages of growth that are compact
into such a relatively short period of time. This spectrum that I engage with
daily is a linear reminder of my own progressive growth: fluid and perpetual.
 |
| !!!ENERGY!!! |
 |
| Walk into my class to find two of my admirers proclaiming a message for all to see |
The classroom is a circus of personalities. Most of the kids
above 12 at our school are mildly sufficient at stringing together a slow train
of dialogue, which can be brilliantly engaging nonetheless. Those who can’t,
however, are just as thrilling. Unable to understand the language being spoken
by nearly everyone around me, my observation of tone and expression has become
much more acute. Instead of being swept up within the complexities of the words
being spoken, I focus on how
something is being said. The structure, the emphasis, tone, etc. - a vocal
expression wholesale often delivers far more than the words projected. Witnessing
the interaction of many people – but namely my students - through such a raw
filter emphasizes the quality of the expressions, actions, and offers
silhouettes of the personalities themselves.
It’s really quite sensational to think that with only a few
months of preparation and a couple hundred dollars for a course, I’m instructing
close to 100 students per week, nestled away on the other side of the world, enjoying
my time and occupation, as well as saving money in the process, as little as it
may be. The “foreigner” experience so far has been mostly pleasant. People are
kind, accommodating and sometimes even humorous. By merit of being young, clever,
attractive and most importantly western,
we were warmly accommodated by our school and the community around us. As for
our sole foreign colleague - intensely anxious and much older – who has come
back to Shaoxing for her second year with this school, I’m not sure she could
say the same. When we touched down we
already had an apartment furnished and ready for us, which was none other than the
former home of this woman, who was downsized and relocated further away from
the school, then relocated even further after the place was found to be
derelict. We were picked up in Shanghai and escorted to Shaoxing, whereas our
older colleague received no such treatment, even after having her gall bladder
removed less than a week earlier. Overall, we’ve been treated wonderfully, but
sadly, upon returning, this poor woman who has committed to a second year has
been handled as second-rate and old news. Julie and I have taken up the more
public fronts such as spelling bee judging and conversation seminars with the
teachers – positions she used to be involved in, but no longer. It’s great that we are valued so openly, but
at the expense of another takes a bit of the polish off of it, exposing how
superficial favor can be here.
As we go about our daily lives there is a constant
pronouncement in the air of Julie and I being different. It’s not necessarily
good or bad, but markedly present. As
we walk down the street all eyes are on us, either darting or staring. Random
“hello”’s will be blurted out from anonymous passerby’s, often followed by a
chorus of giggling. We are the focus of many candid cameras; pictures are often
taken of us, both by random people on the street and colleagues (more so of the
latter during the early weeks). We’re hailed at local markets, and never
acknowledged by police (zero eye contact when blatantly j-walking), stared at
by pedestrians and bashfully juggled between restaurant servers. Everyone is
either openly kind to us or inquisitively and/or bashfully silent. I wonder if such
contrasting engagements are a common experience for foreigners to Canada. I’d
gander it likely, just usually without most of the gracious pleasantries.
 |
| #ThatCelebrityLife |
Although friendly and courteous, there is an anxious
reservation about many people here. It seems that in a place where so many
people are occupied with keeping some whimsical conception of “face”,
presenting oneself naturally is a breath of fresh air – for anyone, but
especially for the students who are perhaps constantly subject to a strict
formal authority. Casual relaxed dialogue is sparse in the daily lives of Julie
and I - beyond that between each other of course. We’ve had a few co-workers
over for dinner and again, although friendly, there is often a pregnant
hesitation to be felt – as if they know more words than they wish to attempt, or
they have more experience or perspective then they wish to admit or share.
Conversation is almost always an uphill effort. Partly because of language
barrier, but also personal reservations and cultural gaps. Many standards of
presentation and superficial ethics are imposed upon the people here we have
come to know. Thus I feel as if, aside
from a few exceptions, our engagements are met with a veneer of presentation
before personality. This is less true of the market vendors or the taxi
drivers, but more of co-workers, acquaintances, students and so on - anyone who
has any investment in making an impression. Of course this can said of anyone
within any culture, but I can’t help but feel that here, this premise is more
obvious and apparent at almost every social turn. In a culture of rules,
conformity and mandated discretion - convention is a formula rarely digressed.
Our positions here are indeed ones of privilege, considering
how much of a grind life appears to be for so many here. The local family run vendors
and restaurants easily work close to 100 hours a week. Open at 8, close a
midnight or later, and always staffed by the same people. Same with physical
labor, the dawn of spring saw a wave of renovations, in which I’d pass the
laborers already fully engaged within their tasks at 8am, and again at dusk,
perhaps 9 or 10pm. One could walk into a local salon for a shave at 7:30am, and
at midnight have their hair cut by the same person.
Students, as young as 8 years old, will do upwards of 10
hours a day of school. For Junior High, 10 hours is standard, and with
homework, that time easily becomes 13. The government mandates bi-weekly exams
for high school students, and from what I’ve seen with the culture here, grades
are a fiat currency as palpable as the printed Yuan itself. Thus, the pressure
is never off. My oldest students are 16 and 18, both of whom I teach privately,
and their daily schoolwork (classes+homework) ranges from 14-16 hour days. Hobbies
are a rare novelty for both youth and adults alike it seems, as are
out-of-school/work friendships and recreation in general. There are no public
soccer fields and no playgrounds; no baseball diamonds and no skateparks. The
historical hills and parks are beautiful indeed, but scarcely occupied only by
the privileged few with the time, namely, the elderly. Occasionally I’ll spot a
basketball net set up on private property available to the public (such as a
KFC courtyard), but often it is derelict in some way, on uneven ground or
bordering a busy road. In a urban area holding a populous of over four million,
it’s beyond odd that I’ve yet to see one subscription gym: martial arts,
general workout or otherwise.
 |
| Public recreation brought to you by the 1980's |
From a young age, the fresh generations are herded through a
viscous system of study and structuralized sociality. Sparingly having time for
play, friendships beyond study, open-ended physical activity, wandering and opportunity
to appreciate ones environment – the deprivation of such things must come with
consequence as these activities stand as fundamental for the development of
creativity, imagination and the molding of independent character. This mire is
perpetuated through the colleges and universities. Their students - adults as
suggested by age - are bound to a strict curfew: tucked in dorms by 10pm on
weekdays, at 11pm the power for the overhead lights are shut off as is the
internet, on weekends only an additional hour of grace is permitted. Study
habits, exercise schedule, socializing – everything is subject to
administrative control. Additionally, all lives here are blanketed by
censorship. Mass amounts of foreign websites are blocked; the government
sponsored social media has blacklisted a wide catalogue of words, terms and phrases. Television is limited
to PG content, even international and regional news is filtered. During the
Russian annexation of Crimea, I didn’t see one single segment, headline or
reference to acknowledge the event whatsoever. Not surprisingly, no one I
mentioned it to (gently and only to handful of people - I’m aware that I’m
tiptoeing around broken glass when it comes to politics here) seemed to have
any awareness of its happening. The missing Malaysia flight, on the other hand,
is receiving mass press and in the mouths of everyone.
On top of censorship and institution, it seems like young
adults have little opportunity to live and act independently. Of all the native
Chinese people under 30 whom we’ve made acquaintance, only one or two live
independently from their parents or grandparents. Inevitably, a lot of the social
expectations I’m accustomed to applying to younger people often miss their mark.
Fair enough I suppose; different place, different people. It makes sense financially and as far as we've seen, it is very uncommon (and therefore I would imagine, undesired) for elderly people to live alone. Trying to attach some
sort of point to this rant, I’ll say that the environment I’ve been exposed to
in my short time here doesn’t seem conducive to the development of organic
creativity, imagination or independent personality, but rather seems to be
quite oppressive of such things. In my mind what follows is a concern for what this
may lead to. If such a system is perpetuated in the same manner as it has been
for the last 20 years, then what lies ahead for further generations? What does
the progression of a cultural identity rapt with strict utilitarian values and devoid
of independent thought look like? I don’t know, but for some reason the writings of Dickens keep coming to mind.
China has bewildered us, thrilled us, welcomed us, and
intrigued us. We’ve been here 2 months now, but have a long way to go. The
potential for our time in China and the experiences that may lie beyond is
endless. So far our stay has been nothing short of enjoyable and fulfilling.
I’ll try to write more frequently. I’ve just been juggling a few new things
around lately, which makes it easy for me to avoid setting aside time for
writing. I might change my mind, but I think my next post will be a little
lighter, focusing on either the teaching experience, or some of our
explorations around Shaoxing. Thanks for reading.
One love,
Cameron
